Eco-Friendly Community Park PBL

Created by Dylan Peters
Activity 3: Create, Analyze, and Interpret a line graph showing how much paper was used and recycled in the last from 2000-2011. Then discuss with your group why recycling is important and the advantages to using recycled material in their park. Finally, make an inference on what the future (2012 and beyond) will be in regards to recycling.
Pace: 90-120 Minutes
Resources:
Paper Recycles (Website)
Math Goodies (Website)
Graph Paper
Ruler
Jack Johnson’s Song Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Data from http://paperrecycles.org/stat_pages/recovery_rate.html

Guided Questions:

How and why do we use line graphs?
How much of a difference can recycling make?
Using the line graph you have created, how can we predict what the future holds?

Lesson Plan:

Introduce “Line Graphs & Data” by showing the following chart from mathgoodies.com.

Ask the students to discuss in a small group what the graph is showing and why we might use line graphs? When they are finished compile a list on the SMARTboard.
Have students think of other things besides weather that they could graph using a line graph such as grades, height of a student throughout their life, or anything else that changes.
Go over terms like axis, vertical, horizontal, plots, and lines. Show this using the example.
Play Jack Johnson’s “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”

Display facts from paperrecycles.org:

Review the first fact and introduce the formula for Volume (LxWxH). Ask students to choose an object inside the classroom that they think is about 3.3 Cubic Yards. Then, calculate the volume of that particular object and check work. Is 3.3 cubic yards, bigger or smaller than what they thought? **
Using the data from paperrecycles.org on the top of this lesson, graph out the data in a line graph.
Make an inference about what 2012 and 2013 would be based off the line graph you have designed. Are we going in the right direction?
Have students write a short one paragraph response on why we are/aren’t going in the right direction as a conclusion activity. This can be done on post-it notes and displayed in a “Parking Lot” Bulletin Board for future discussion or something to reference at the end.